Axial compressors have many applications in industry. An axial compressor is often a critical piece of machinery in many processes. Accordingly, it is paramount that the compressor be reliable and, when the need arises to repair a compressor, that the down time for repairs be kept to a minimum. Lost production due to equipment down time can be costly. An axial compressor usually has a split casing to allow access to the rotor. A conventional rotor for a compressor includes a plurality of wheels stacked axially on the rotor. The surface at the edge of the wheel is provided with airfoil-shaped blades. When a compressor wheel rotates, the airfoil-shaped blades compress the working fluid, such as a gas, from a lower pressure to a higher pressure. Industrial compressors can be extremely heavy machinery with correspondingly heavy wheels. Compressor blades can become damaged, chipped, or broken, which affects the performance of the compressor. Conventionally, to replace one or more compressor blades requires the top half of the split casing to be removed. The rotor is then dismounted together with all the wheels and taken to a machine shop, where the wheels can be unstacked. This conventionally had to be done to remove and replace a single blade.
Disclosed herein is a modified compressor blade and method of removing and replacing compressor blades, such that the procedure of removing the rotor and unstacking the compressor wheels can be avoided.